1. Field
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a paper ejection unit to receive a printed paper sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
A paper sheet printed by an image forming apparatus is ejected to a tray of the main body of the apparatus or a paper ejection unit (also called a finisher) equipped on the main body. The paper ejection unit has a plurality of trays, for example, two divided into upper and lower sides, to receive paper sheets ejected from the main body, and moves these trays to a paper ejection port of the main body.
There is a multifunction image forming apparatus (called an MFP), which has multiple functions including a printer function of printing an external image input from a network or the like on a paper sheet, in addition to an ordinary copy function of printing an image read from a document on a paper sheet. In the multifunction image forming apparatus equipped with the paper ejection unit, a paper sheet printed by the copy function is ejected to the upper side tray, and a paper sheet printed by the printer function is ejected to the lower side tray. Namely, the upper side tray is used for copying, and the lower side tray is used for printing.
However, at the end of printing by the printer function, the lower side tray for printing is left being set at the position corresponding to the paper ejection port of the main body. Thus, even if a copy job is input after the end of printing by the printer function, printing is not started at once. Printing will be started after the upper side tray for copying is moved to the paper ejection port of the main body (after the preparation for printing by the copy function is completed). The user must wait for a long time in front of the main body until printing is started after a copy job is input.